ABSTRACT
This chapter challenges the reorganizers, including those studying the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, to ponder some guidelines that underlie soundly conceived reorganization plans, and that may give pause to hasty action. The reorganization ranges from government-wide restructuring to interagency or intra-agency consolidations or divisions of the functions. Organization informs managers and employees of their responsibilities and their relationships to each other, and the organizations must adapt as federal missions change or are transformed by technology or new externalities. President Reagan, true to his anti-government campaign promise, proposed to abolish the departments of Energy and Education. Since the president is the bureaucrats' boss, Carter's bleat was really a confession that he lacked the skill, or the will, to manage his employees. A strong enterprise needs the effective people who share its institutional goals. It needs adequate resources and sensible procedures. And it needs good organization.
